Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Council supports 10 projects for Low Income Housing Tax Credits

Cincinnati City Council pledged its support for 10 affordable housing projects seeking federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits through resolutions passed at its Feb. 13 meeting.

The tax credits, awarded through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), are designed to increase the supply of clean and safe affordable rental housing by providing assistance with project development costs.

A resolution of support from the local government improves a project's chances of receiving the tax credits as part of OHFA's scoring system.

The projects receiving support include:


One project not supported unanimously

All resolutions passed unanimously, except for The Commons at Alaska, against which councilmembers Christopher Smitherman and Cecil Thomas voted.

The project would be built on the site of the former Alaska Acres Care Center, which went into foreclosure in 2009.

Some residents in the vicinity of the proposed building contacted Smitherman and Thomas to voice their displeasure over having an additional multi-family building – with more low income people – on what is a relatively stable street of homeowners.
Residents also complained about a lack of transparency. Some said that they didn't know about the proposal until a day before the meeting of Council's Livable Communities Committee on Feb. 12.

A public comment period will open next month and will continue through March 3. Applications will be presented to the OHFA board on June 19.

Since 1987, OHFA has used the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to facilitate the development of more than 87,400 affordable rental units statewide.

Previous reading on BC:
City West money to aid $25M YMCA redevelopment (10/8/12)
Loan, property sale aid two affordable housing projects (6/25/12)
'Dated and stark' St. Paul Village apts. now 'beautiful and well-appointed' (5/9/12)
Two Hamilton Co projects win affordable housing tax credits (4/12/12)
Historic Haddon Hall renovation wins $6.7M in bonds from OHFA (3/26/12)